Good morning.

Tuesday’s forecast calls for a breezy day with a high of eighty-five.

Common Council in Whitewater meets tonight at 6:30 PM, to discuss recruitment plans for a new city manager, and then in closed session to select city manager finalists.

The Common Council agenda for this (partly) closed session is set up as it should be: (1) it lists the legal basis for going into closed session (“Wisconsin Statutes 19.85(1)(c) “Considering employment, promotion, compensation or performance evaluation of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility” and 19.85(1)(e) “Deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public properties, the investing of public funds, or conducting other specified public business, whenever competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session”) and (2) the item to be discussed (“Review of City Manager applications and selection of finalists and selection of questions to be used for interviews.”)

That’s how every agenda for a closed session should look, by law: it should have those two elements. Why? It’s a legal requirement because closed sessions are the exception, not the rule, and so a public body should be clear about why they’re undertaking an exception. (For an example of an agenda that’s deficient under Wisconsin law, as of this post, see the agenda for tomorrow’s Tech Park Board meeting. It lists a legal basis, but no items to be discussed.)

Here’s a simple checklist that a meeting’s chairperson should use to make sure an agenda describes a closed session adequately:

1. Need. Is there really a practical need for this closed session?
2. Law. Is there a provision of Wisconsin law that permits a closed session?
3. Business. What business, specifically, will be discussed in closed session?
4. Agenda. Does the agenda plainly state both the legal justification and the particular business to be discussed at a closed session? (The meeting’s chairperson should be the one to review a board or committee agenda before it’s posted.)

The Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council has more links to open government resources helpful in organizing a meeting properly.

The New York Times archive has a link to their coverage of 9.11, including their front page at the time with news of the attacks.

On this day in 1903,

Auto racing debuts at The Milwaukee Mile

On this date William Jones of Chicago won a five-lap speed contest, setting the first track record with a 72 second, 50 mph lap in the process. The Milwaukee Mile was originally a private horsetrack, in existence since at least 1876, and is the oldest, continuously operating auto racing facility in the world. [Source:The Milwaukee Mile]

Google’s daily puzzle asks “Which man’s “bulldog” coined the term agnostic?”

Good morning.

Whitewater’s Monday will bring sunny skies and a high of seventy-eight.

The city’s Parks & Rec Board meets at 5 PM today. Thereafter, the Planning Board meets at 6 PM, and the Library Board at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1897, in England, the world saw the first drunk driving arrest. In 1936, in America,

Dr. Rolla Harger, a professor of biochemistry and toxicology, patented the Drunkometer, a balloon-like device into which people would breathe to determine whether they were inebriated. In 1953, Robert Borkenstein, a former Indiana state police captain and university professor who had collaborated with Harger on the Drunkometer, invented the Breathalyzer. Easier-to-use and more accurate than the Drunkometer, the Breathalyzer was the first practical device and scientific test available to police officers to establish whether someone had too much to drink. A person would blow into the Breathalyzer and it would gauge the proportion of alcohol vapors in the exhaled breath, which reflected the level of alcohol in the blood.

If you’ve never seen a cyborg cockroach, that’s about to change. Scientists at North Carolina State have created cyborg cockroaches that they can guide by remote control:

Google’s daily puzzle asks about a character from one of Plato’s works: “In Plato’s “Apology,” what’s the job of the man with ‘not much of a beard, and a rather aquiline nose?'” more >>

Good morning.

A mostly sunny day, with a high of seventy-one, awaits Whitewater.

Today’s the day in history on which Congress gave the country, formally, a new name:

On this day in 1776, the Continental Congress formally declares the name of the new nation to be the “United States” of America. This replaced the term “United Colonies,” which had been in general use.

In the Congressional declaration dated September 9, 1776, the delegates wrote, “That in all continental commissions, and other instruments, where, heretofore, the words ‘United Colonies’ have been used, the stile be altered for the future to the “United States.”

A resolution by Richard Henry Lee, which had been presented to Congress on June 7 and approved on July 2, 1776, issued the resolve, “That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States….” As a result,John Adams thought July 2 would be celebrated as “the most memorable epoch in the history of America.” Instead, the day has been largely forgotten in favor of July 4, when Jefferson’s edited Declaration of Independence was adopted. That document also states, “That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES.” However, Lee began with the line, while Jefferson saved it for the middle of his closing paragraph.

I’ve an update to my Friday catblogging post about Oscar the Bionic Cat: a link to a full program (available online) from the Smithsonian Channel about Oscar, entitled, “The Bionic Vet: Oscar & Mayo.”

Google’s daily puzzle is asking about one of the uses for a Greek letter: “What Greek letter represents a number of complete waves produced per unit of time?”

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny, with a high of seventy, and a thirty percent chance of showers in the late afternoon.

On this day in 1974, Pres. Ford granted an unconditional pardon to former Pres. Nixon.

Also on this day, in 1664, New Amsterdam became New York:

Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant surrenders New Amsterdam, the capital of New Netherland, to an English naval squadron under Colonel Richard Nicolls. Stuyvesant had hoped to resist the English, but he was an unpopular ruler, and his Dutch subjects refused to rally around him. Following its capture, New Amsterdam’s name was changed to New York, in honor of the Duke of York, who organized the mission.

The colony of New Netherland was established by the Dutch West India Company in 1624 and grew to encompass all of present-day New York City and parts of Long Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey. A successful Dutch settlement in the colony grew up on the southern tip of Manhattan Island and was christened New Amsterdam…

In 1664, New Amsterdam passed to English control, and English and Dutch settlers lived together peacefully. In 1673, there was a short interruption of English rule when the Netherlands temporary regained the settlement. In 1674, New York was returned to the English, and in 1686 it became the first city in the colonies to receive a royal charter. After the American Revolution, it became the first capital of the United States.

The Wisconsin Historical Society records that on this day in 1958,

1958 – Janesville Women Belly Up to the Bar
On this date the Janesville city council voted 4-2 to finally end a paternalistic and discriminatory ordinance that prohibited women from drinking at the bar. Since the end of Prohibition in 1933, women had been banned from being served while standing at the bar in Janesville taverns. [Source: Janesville Gazette]

A quick check of an atlas confirms that, despite this change, Janesville’s still around.

Google’s daily puzzle‘s throwing out a bit of weekend math and physics: “Would you describe the mathematical quantity represented by “a = F/m” as a vector or scalar quantity?”

Good morning.

The forecast calls for a rainy day, a high of seventy-two, and light winds throughout the day.

Over at LiveScience.com, an animation shows how a recent Costa Rican earthquake affected the U.S. (blue is downward motion of the ground, red is upward motion):

We’ve come through a year of recalls, but the Wisconsin Historical society recalls the first judicial recall we had, on Sept. 7,  1977:

On this date Wisconsin’s first judicial-recall election was held. Dane County citizens voted Judge Archie Simonson out of office. Simonson called rape a normal male reaction to provocative female attire and modern society’s permissive attitude toward sex. He made this statement while explaining why he sentenced a 15-year-old to only one year of probation for raping a 16-year-old girl. After the recall election, Simonson was replaced by Moria Krueger, the first woman judge elected in Dane County history. [Source: Initiative & Referendum Institute]

From Google’s daily puzzle, some geology: “The geologic period known for the Earth’s highest atmospheric oxygen levels is divided into epochs named after which two U.S. states?”